This article assumes that the previous article, which provides an overview of the vision in Daniel 7, has been read.
Purpose of the Article
Using a series of four animals, symbolizing four consecutive empires, Daniel 7 describes world history, from the time of the Babylonian Empire until Christ returns. The fourth empire fragments into 11 kingdoms, existing concurrently.
Daniel 2 describes the same four empires. As stated in the article on Daniel 2, that vision identifies the first as the ancient Babylonian Empire, which reigned in the 6th and 7th centuries B.C.
Daniel 7 does not identify any of the four animals.
Both Daniel 7 and 8 use animals as symbols for empires. Daniel 8 uses two animals, a Ram and a Goat, and explicitly identifies them as “Media and Persia” and “Greece” (Daniel 8:20, 21). The purpose of the current article is to identify the four animals in Daniel 7 by comparing them to the animals in Daniel 8.
The Antichrist
In both Daniel 7 and 8, the main character is an evil horn. Commentators generally agree that the horns in these two chapters symbolize the same entity. This article refers to it as the Antichrist because Daniel describes it as God’s great enemy, and it will only be destroyed when Christ returns. In Daniel 7, the Antichrist is the 11th horn growing out of the 4th animal.
Competing Interpretations
From the time of the prophet Daniel, the nation of Israel was subject to four empires: the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and the Roman Empires.
Both Conservatives and Liberals interpret the first animal in Daniel 7, the Lion, as the ancient Babylonian Empire.
However, they differ with respect to the other three animals. While Conservatives hold that Medo-Persia is symbolized by the second animal, the Bear, Liberals believe that Medo-Persia is symbolized by BOTH the second and third animals, the Bear and the Leopard. Liberals identify the second animal as the Medes, and the third as Persia. Consequently, the two competing systems may be compared as follows:
| Daniel 7 | Conservative | Liberal |
| Lion | Babylon | Babylon |
| Bear | Medo-Persia | Medes |
| Leopard | Greece | Persians |
| Fourth | Rome | Greece |
Since the Antichrist-horn in Daniel 7 grows out of the 4th animal, in the Conservative scheme, the Antichrist is of Roman origin, but, in the Liberal view, the Antichrist is Greek.
The Bear represents Medo-Persia.
This section begins to identify the animals in Daniel 7 by comparing them to the animals in Daniel 8.
The first animal in Daniel 8 is a Ram, explicitly identified as “Media and Persia” (Daniel 8:20). It has two horns, one higher than the other. The higher horn came out last. It charges in three directions: the West, the North, and the South (Daniel 8:3-4).
The Bear of Daniel 7 is similar to the Ram:
Firstly, both are higher on one side. While the Bear is “raised up on one side,” the Ram has two horns, one longer than the other. The two sides are Media and Persia. The Ram’s horn that came out last but became longer, and the higher side of the Bear, symbolize the Persians. Initially, the Medes dominated Persia, but Cyrus reversed the relationship so that Persia dominated the Medes when their combined forces conquered Babylon.
Secondly, both conquer three things. While the Ram charges in three directions, the Bear has three ribs between its teeth (Daniel 7:5). Since animals symbolize kingdoms, the ribs between the teeth of the Bear may represent kingdoms or territories conquered. The three ribs may reasonably be taken as the three major conquests of the combined forces of the Medes and Persians in the sixth century BC:
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- Lydia in the north in 547,
- Babylon in the west in 539, and
- Egypt in the south in 525.
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The Leopard is not Medo-Persia.
In the Liberal interpretation, the Ram of Daniel 8 includes both the Bear and Leopard of Daniel 7. However, there is no similarity between the Ram and the Leopard. On the contrary, they clearly differ. Daniel’s prophecies use heads and horns to indicate divisions of empires. While the Ram has two horns, meaning it has two divisions, the Medes and Persians, the Leopard has four heads (Daniel 7:6), meaning that it has four divisions.
The Leopard is Greece.
The second animal in Daniel 8 is a Goat, explicitly identified as Greece (Daniel 8:21). It comes from the west without touching the ground. It has one great horn, but the great horn was broken while it was still strong. In its place came up four horns to the four directions of the compass (Daniel 8:5, 8).
The Goat is similar to the Leopard of Daniel 7:6:
Firstly, both are fast. While the Leopard has four wings, the Goat flies. The speed of its conquests refers to the speed at which Alexander the Great conquered the known world.
Secondly, both have four parts. The Leopard has four heads, while the Goat has four horns. The four heads and four horns symbolize the four Greek Empires formed after Alexander’s death at age 33.
Given these similarities, the Leopard is equivalent to the Goat and represents the Greek Empire.
The fourth animal is not Greece.
In the Liberal interpretation, the Goat of Daniel 8 is equivalent to the dreadful fourth animal of Daniel 7, and both symbolize Greece. However, nothing in their descriptions suggests that. On the contrary, while the Goat first has only one horn and then later four, the fourth animal first has ten horns, then an 11th comes up, uproots three of the first 10 horns, leaving 8 horns standing. Since horns symbolize the divisions of kingdoms, the Goat and the Dreadful Fourth Animal are not related.
Conclusion
Since the Bear is Medo-Persia and the Leopard Greece, the Dreadful Fourth Animal of Daniel 7 must be the next empire in the series, namely, the Roman Empire:
| Daniel 7 | Daniel 8 | |
| Lion | Babylonian Empire | |
| Bear | Ram | Medo-Persia |
| Leopard | Goat | Greek Empire |
| Fourth Animal | Roman Empire |
This confirms the Conservative view. It means that the Antichrist arises out of the Roman Empire.
Medo-Persia
As stated, to make their interpretation fit the text, Liberal scholars propose that the author of Daniel divided Medo-Persia into two empires. Therefore, another argument against the Liberal interpretation is that this is inconsistent with both secular history and the Book of Daniel:
Historically, the Persians conquered the Medes around 550 BC, and, 11 years later, the joint forces of the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon, with Cyrus the Great as their supreme king.
It would also be inconsistent with the Book of Daniel itself. Daniel always refers to the Medes and Persians as a single empire. For example:
He prophesied that the joint forces of the Medes and the Persians would conquer Babylon (Daniel 5:28).
He referred to the unchangeable law of the Medes and the Persians (Daniel 6:9, 13, and 16).
He identified the Ram as “the kings of Media and Persia” (Daniel 8:20).
Other Articles
Next Article: Three interpretations of the evil horn of Daniel 8.